Great work. I really like this build with the exception of the white saddle and bar tape. Not a fan of that look but to each their own. With that being said and getting back to the build, I would change out the brakes to a pair TRP brakes or maybe a newer pair of the KCNC brakes. I have the CB1's and they will be going on my fourth build which is now a single speed. That is all they are good for. I replaced them with EE brakes which I found a deal on so it was a worthy upgrade for me.

Thanks for using discretion with my lady friend... I'd be crushed if she cheated on meHow does the Garmin function in your pocket... specifically the elevation graph? I note that when it rains I get strange altitude readings and it goes crazy if I brush a finger over the barometric sensor... I then made the assumption that it would not work well in a pocket, but never tried it.

Geez, I just realized I have a brand new 2004 or 05 Fuji frame (one of those ALU with carbon rear triangle models I think) in my parent's basement... I doubt it's as light as yours... but now I'm curious.

That poor guy with the heavy Fuji was probably totally happy until he saw your rig!

J Rad - Those climbing figures are the result of old-fashioned, painful, mind-destroying repetitions. DC/MD doesn't have much in the way of long climbs, but it is actually a very wrinkly landscape, with lots of moderate ~1-3k climbs to work into your regular routes if you're so inclined. I make a point of trying to hit every climb I can find within reach of my normal loop.

Bmanx - Agreed about the brakes. The price/weight ratio was just to good to pass up. For now they're stopping me fine, plus I'm less than 150lbs at the moment, but in the long run, I'd like to look into some other lightweight alternatives. By the way, those white bars are actually much more like mustard-brown at the moment. They get dirty fast! I thought about all stealth black, but there are a lot of those about ... and in fact, for a little bit there I seeeeriously considered doing something crazy like using bright orange or green saddle/tape, with some similar anodized parts and bolts here and there to match, but I came to my senses before I pulled the trigger.

Jvanv8 - No, Mr. Garmin isn't fond of the pocket. He likes to breath. But I'm using it right now just to chart HR against distance and (sort of) to track my routes, which works ok most of the time even in the pocket. For elevation, I rely on the US Geological Survey data supplied by the mapping website I use even when the Garmin is mounted, since I don't trust Garmin's elevation much. I find the USGS data short-changes me on the degree of grades...or at least it sure feels like it. But otherwise it's good enough for my purposes at least.

***

So I've got my first century on this bike coming up in three weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing if I still like her after five or six hours in the saddle. If an 05 Fuji Team Issue shows up in the For Sale forum, I guess we'll have our answer.

OT follow up on the Pocket-Garmin inquiry. Just for fun, I did some quick comparisons. My ride to work has a couple minor grades, and I've ridden it with the Edge 305 in pocket, as well as mounted on the stem, and have also run the same course through the USGS numbers. The very unscientific result of this comparison suggests at this very incremental level the numbers aren't horribly far off each other:

Pocket Garmin

Distance: 0.9 mlsElevation Delta: +134/-14 ftMax Grade: 7%

Mounted Garmin

Distance: 0.9 mlsElevation Delta: +129/-11 ftMax Grade: 6.6%

USGS -- No Garmin

Distance: 0.9 mlsElevation Delta: +154/-28 ftMax Grade: 8.5%

Another short climbing section, but I only have data for the pocket-borne Garmin (twice) against current USGS results. Still fairly consistent I'd say, especially on gradient:

Over the course of a 100 mile ride, of course, these small differences may add up to much larger ones, and if you lose satalite reception because of the pocket placement that you wouldn't lose mounted on the bars, then the device's functionality will really go down the drain.

Edit: Funny, I had to go back and switch USSG to USGS -- in my work I deal with the US Sentencing Guidelines manual quite often, and just slipped and used that abbreviation inadvertently here. All fixed.

Hey, first time seeing this thread. The PT wheels will look real good on this machine. Just noticed that you have the spiral Yokozuna cable for your shifters and I was under the impression that those were the brake cables. My Yokozuna box came with 5 smaller pre cut segments specified for the shifting cables and one long, spiraled cable that is specified for the brakes. This could be why you reported problems routing them. I did the same thing before going online and finding out that the smaller black cables are actually the shift cables. You can save quite a few grams by using the proper cables because the brake cable housing is absurdly heavy. Also, depending on how much length you need I have some extra I-links I can throw in with the wheels and all you would need is some liners/cable and you would chop off quite a few grams.

KW -- Yeah, the big fat spiral housings are definitely for the brakes, not the shifters. But that's where I've got them -- the pics I posted are a bit misleading, I think. Nonetheless, they do weigh a lot more than I-links, so I'm happy to mix and match a bit if you've got some extras!

TP -- funny I was just going to post a question on your BH thread. Anywho, yeah, I like this bike a whole lot. Still. The frame is super stiff in my experience at least, and looking at some of its modern counterparts, its 1080g with hardware is not unreasonably heavy. I've been really working on climbing since building this machine, and even though it is admittedly not a climbing focused frame, it has served me very well in that regard. I'm also enjoying the standard crankset/12-25 rear cassette set up on everything but the most crazy steep sections, which aren't all that common in these parts anyway.

That said, if I have any complaint, I sometimes think it's a bit buzzy and unforgiving. A result likely of its focus at the time as Fuji's no-compromise racer. I also wonder if my fit is a bit off with my current setback seatpost. My biggest problem in assessing the bike, really, is that I just don't have much to compare it to. I did just wrap up a great week in Park City riding a rental bike in the hills -- a Look 566, which is Look's lower-end, sportive frame, a great ride for funning around. And I must admit that the ride quality of the Look was far more comfortable than my Fuji Team Issue. Then again, these two are made for very different purposes.

In the future: A used Troy Watson wheelset with a powertap rear hub is on the way from KW. I'll likely try to find a decent straight seatpost to experiment with. I'd like to replace the Zipp stem with something more traditional and in the -6 degree range, maybe 3T or Ritchey. I've got a pair of new Veloflex Carbon tires for my Reynolds wheels that I am currently stetching out and need to mount. Might get an Edge 500 or even a Joule 2.0, depending on how the training with power goes. And that's about it until I manage to source a Look 586 or Cervelo R3 SL frame for a great price!

I agree- Impressive weight for the money. Both this and DjConnel's Fuji are good examples of light builds that can be done with normal off the shelf frames for a good amount of money. It makes sense to do it that way, at least to me, because then you can have multiple wheels, bikes, etc. I tried to do the same with the Guru, but its still not a budget build in the least.

OK, seriously, I've really lost my freaking mind. I just bought a barely used set of Reynolds MV32T UL carbon tubulars. I am totally insane. My wife is going to skin me alive and sell what's left for science. I must be stopped. That said, I got them for $580, so I think I saved money in the long run, aye? Don't have them yet, but here's a stockist's photo to water the mouth a bit:

Best I can tell, they're about 1030g. My Euruses purport to be 1550g. No idea on the tires/tubes vs tubulars/glue, but I'm thinking I win there, too. Now I've got to figure out how to glue a tire. And did I mention I'm never going to get to ride this thing because my wife is going to defenestrate me? I'm a dead man. At least I should have no problem breaking the 6.8kilo threshold.

Ha ha, that was my reaction at the time, too. I've porked this thing up since then anyway. I'm running a rear kinlin 270 w/DT spokes and a powertap SL hub, with my front Eurus almost all the time. Poor bike looks a little skitzo with the non-matching wheelset, but whatever. (Add in that the bike is covered in dirt and the white bar-tape has turned pink from a set of red arm-warmers that bled when I rested my wrists on the bars, and it's quite a sight!) The tubular carbon hoops have been hanging on the garage wall since I flatted at mile 300 with them. The glass- and pothole-strewn mean streets of DC are no place for tubulars. Too bad, too, since I've got a nifty set of unused, brand new Veloflex carbons just lying around, but I don't want to mount them since I'm thinking about selling the wheelset -- given that I really have no intention or need to use them any time soon.

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